The Bicycle Transport Alliance has been advised by the Perth City Project that the Milligan Street footbridge will be closed from 8 PM on Tuesday March 5, 2013 until 4 AM on Thursday March 7, 2013 so that a section of the footbridge can be relocated. This will of course impact on cyclists and pedestrians who use the footbridge.

A detour will be put in place during the detour with cyclists and pedestrians been advised to go via the Horseshoe Bridge. The Horseshoe Bridge is located roughly 500m to the east of the Milligan Street footbridge. Please see map for below for the alternative route.

Following representation by the Bicycle Transport Alliance, BTA has been advised by the Public Transport Authority, that "traffic management measures will be put in place for cyclists during the Milligan Street footbridge closure." No details on form this will take but.

A climpse of the future at this location:When completed, there will be no way to get your bike up these steps (except carry it), and you will have to use other roads (Queen and King Streets), or use the lift that is still to be built to the left of the steps, and will be used for others who can't use steps.

There was a crew working on the existing bridge yesterday when the photo was taken, and I believe that we will still be able to use it for a couple more months/years, but eventually it will go and we will have the stairs.

They have built a whole new permanent bit parrallel to the top stretch, which would make it seem like it will form part of a new bike-friendly overpass, but nothing to indicate a ramp down to the southern side.

But as the whole train line is to be sunk - will there just be a path across this land somewhere?

eldavo wrote:I had read previous mention of CoP scrapping bike paths from the bike plan in favour of 40kph speed limits in the CBD being sufficient.

Good luck with that! I had to cross Hay St (between King and Milligan) at about 2pm the other day and it was absolute bedlam, there were so many drivers pulling out without looking it was scary... no way I'd ride a bike down there. I've ridden between William and King and that was sketchy enough with all the taxis and peds.

It is bizarre with the widened St Georges terrace sidewalks, PEDs can't keep left so you get 10 abreast, and a taxi mount the curb pointing out it has subtle parking bays in the pavement and the wide sidewalk is actually a full time loading zone, unmarked.To the point for being on a bike, the CBD's main terrace is choked to single lane, so it was a nice stretch to ride taking whole lane able to ride as fast as the congested traffic, with less lane change risks. 200m later that end, but chaos for some is peace for others.

wellington_street wrote:Roland, have you ever got an answer out of CoP or Main Roads about why the cycle lanes were scrapped on both those streets?

I have meet with City of Perth, as well as MRA. As an example of the conversation relating to the cycle lanes on Roe St, responses were something like:"With the state government announcing light rail, we had to allow width to support this, and there isn't enough width to support cycle lanes."

The Master Plan of Roe St is available if you want to see what is proposed. Unfortuantly I didn't respond last year, as I don't think I was aware of it, but used this as an example with Minister of Planning's office late last year that there needs to be co-ordination of these changes.

In relation to Wellington St, we are getting bi-directional cycle path from Little Milligan St to William St. Times aren't indicated, and I can't find a link to the Wellington Street Plan, so you will have to squint at the below photo:

There was also a comment from someone indicating that CoP are scrapping cycle paths. This is not 100% correct, as City of Perth's Bike Plan Schedule indicates sections of Stirling St and Aberdeen St being built in this year (2012/13). Let's hope they do.

I'm also a big supporter of reducing traffic speed, and the Perth CBD is an example where more should be done, in particular as things like the MasterPlan indicate that Wellington St should be one, and it hasn't been delivered.

PS did anyone ride along Wellington St today due to the Milligan Street closure? I did and was not impressed with the cyclists dismount signs installed 1/2 way down. Hopefully the work will be completed as planned for tomorrow morning.

Thanks Roland. I don't mind their omission on Roe Street so much as the PSP is available there but on Wellington it's a very different story. If the kerbside lane was made a dedicated bus/cycle lane I would be reasonably happy with that.

eldavo wrote:I had read previous mention of CoP scrapping bike paths from the bike plan in favour of 40kph speed limits in the CBD being sufficient.

Good luck with that! I had to cross Hay St (between King and Milligan) at about 2pm the other day and it was absolute bedlam, there were so many drivers pulling out without looking it was scary... no way I'd ride a bike down there. I've ridden between William and King and that was sketchy enough with all the taxis and peds.

I ride up Hay street from William to Milligan. It's not the King street junction you need to watch it's the two car park exits and the pedestrians!

Oh...and the bridge is open again. There are two narrow blind corners included for extra fun!

Hmmm, it's a bit hard to figure out, but my main issue is the continuation of the PSP from the Roe St side to it's continuation heading West, either to go further along the railway to Subi, or turn off to head South up George St.

The Master Plan indicates keeping Roe st bike-friendly, but surely there'll be a nice continuation of the PSP? Or will the PSP no longer go behind the Arena? OK just found something on master plan p.70 - looks like 'shared path' (not PSP) that crosses the (sunk?) railway under the freeway interchange.

wellington_street wrote:Thanks Roland. I don't mind their omission on Roe Street so much as the PSP is available there but on Wellington it's a very different story. If the kerbside lane was made a dedicated bus/cycle lane I would be reasonably happy with that.

I have a personal issue with the Roe Street having PSP. The Roe Street PSP as it stands now is pretty good, it has no interruptions from the Horseshoe Bridge down to Milligan St (and in the future it will continue all the way Thomas St as indicated in CBD Transport Plan).

This will change as there will be at least two two new roads intersecting the PSP (Queen St and King St), and potentially more depending where the building car park entrances are located. If the new roads are traffic light contolled, I will be very surprised, cyclists/peds traffic will have priority (this is based on as far as I'm aware every other PSP conrolled traffic light in Perth, the road usage has priority)

If these new roads are not traffic light controlled, then you will constantly be looking behind to see if there are any cars turning into the road. If you ride on the North PSP, think of the area around Hutton St where there are two roads that intersect that PSP.

If there were cycle lanes, then generally, they are controlled with the same traffic lights as the road lights, and (generally) cars wait for you if are turning left.

Baalzamon wrote:I haven't seen it but those blind corners I'm inclined to think it's cyclists dismount and walk around it

Nope, they are blind corners, where the non-see through 10-ft high fencing on either side of the bridge has been installed. Can't work out why as other temporary fencing give you visablity through them, and it wasn't there before.

Yes we could dismount, but the better option would have been to consider the needs of those using the bridge. I do slow down when using it, but to be honest, I've been avoiding this area for months now as it was bad before with the sloping ramps, and the blind corners adds to another reason to avoid it.

Blind corner and a narrowed path - it is a bit of a challenge.... and then going under the arena, using the car park, a attendant saw me slightly touching the rising barrier (boom?) and informed me that damaging the barrier carries a $5000 fine. I just gave him a wave and the thumps up. Idiots....

wellington_street wrote:Thanks Roland. I don't mind their omission on Roe Street so much as the PSP is available there but on Wellington it's a very different story. If the kerbside lane was made a dedicated bus/cycle lane I would be reasonably happy with that.

I have a personal issue with the Roe Street having PSP. The Roe Street PSP as it stands now is pretty good, it has no interruptions from the Horseshoe Bridge down to Milligan St (and in the future it will continue all the way Thomas St as indicated in CBD Transport Plan).

This will change as there will be at least two two new roads intersecting the PSP (Queen St and King St), and potentially more depending where the building car park entrances are located. If the new roads are traffic light contolled, I will be very surprised, cyclists/peds traffic will have priority (this is based on as far as I'm aware every other PSP conrolled traffic light in Perth, the road usage has priority)

If these new roads are not traffic light controlled, then you will constantly be looking behind to see if there are any cars turning into the road. If you ride on the North PSP, think of the area around Hutton St where there are two roads that intersect that PSP.

If there were cycle lanes, then generally, they are controlled with the same traffic lights as the road lights, and (generally) cars wait for you if are turning left.

Just my view.

I can't say I disagree with you, Roland.

I'm inclined to say that both are needed - the faster cyclists using the road and slower/less confident ones on the path through there.

More typical behaviour from the City of Perth which talks big (pedestrians first, cyclists, PT then cars last) but acts in the exact opposite manner.

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